The Securities and Exchange Board of India (frequently abbreviated SEBI) is the regulator for the securities market in IndiaSEBI free to seize properties of Sahara companies for defying court: SChttp://timesofindia....ow/18368788.cms

Sahara has made many violations but theirs are mostly in the way they have collected money rather than defrauding anyone.. they have also bought the Plaza hotel in NY etc, without clearing the purchase with the Reserve Bank of India.. not having money is not one of their problems..

Kingfisher(airline) has never made a profit so they aren't really dragging down the team. Though if he has to offset huge loses by selling other bits of the group that may cause a problem.

What i understand about the way the KF airline was financed was that the airline pledge its own shares with the banks, a big chunk of that was converted to equity. They cancelled their purchases switched to leased airplanes. The banks still had outstanding loans and a chunk of these were guaranteed by United Spirits and United Breweries. The shares in these companies were pledged (not a big chunk and not a big chunk of VJM's own shares either)

VJM also put some of his personal homes on the line, the one in Goa and the one in Bombay which should be together worth close to $15-20. Bear in mind he has some 40 + properties spread across the world from Sausalito to Monaco to Cannes to Africa so he is not hurting.

If this does go South he will de link his houses and pay for them out of pocket, United Spirits will be taken over by Diageo, he can either sell them his own shares or continue to own them. He will most likely sell off his stake in Mangalore Fertilizers which is another publicly listed company owned by him.

He will i think continue his holding in United Breweries which is his crown jewel. This way the banks get paid to an extent and must write off the rest. KF can fly as a new lean operation or shutter for good. Either way VJM loses $200million of his fortune but wont be needing our help anytime soon.

.......Either way VJM loses $200million of his fortune but wont be needing our help anytime soon.

I'm not sure that's quite right. The Indian Express reports that Mr Mallya's UB empire has a very significant exposure to the losses at Kingfisher (see HERE). I make Rs 13,500 Crore about £1.6BILLION in our money.....and that might have a rather significant effect upon Mr Mallya's pocket - and probably Force India too.

"Lenders to grounded Kingfisher Airlines(KING.NS) have decided to take initial steps towards recovering $1.4 billion of loans in default after the company failed to come up with a viable funding plan."

Ecclestone must have been aware of (then unspecified) difficulties, when he suddenly and publicly changed his tune just not too long ago, and began advocating F1 membership related contraction. Then I thought he was merely hashing up exit by HRT, but now I am not so sure anymore that this was the only case. Can VM’partner (Sahara?) carry that team forward?

____________________

The speculators who wanted to float F1 on a stock exchange must be delirious with the news and what it does to what's already by some estimates pretty bloated asking price for a share.

what kills me is you see these guys who make billions and then they stop doing what made them all those billions and try to own everything...
only the guy from redbull has done what made him rich and continues to do so.

what kills me is you see these guys who make billions and then they stop doing what made them all those billions and try to own everything...only the guy from redbull has done what made him rich and continues to do so.

It's called capitalism. Better than bailing out the stupid ambitious rich people and bankrupting your country by doing so...

I greatly appreciate Marussia and Caterham to come out and say they are in trouble and had to go with drivers with backing.force india on the other hand have been a farce.

Nice, now we have farce (not accepting) within a farce (pay driver).I think they deserve some credit for appreciating meritocracy over pay driver phenomenon over past 3-4 years compare to likes of Sauber and Williams.Yes, delaying second driver decision indeed displaying murkiness in background and yes it is annoying but whats wrong in prioritizing to bring the house in order first rather than caring more about fan's impatience.

It could mean that Narain karthikeyan will drive for Caterham orNarain karthikeyan could drive for Force India if AirAsia-India rescues Kingfisher.

It is more like AirAsia destroys King Fisher faster than it may... Naturally this will cause good amount of political tension a=on the gird. I can hardly imagine that Narain will drive for Force India because Air Asia starting to attack Indian Market, more likely that Narain will drive Caterham's Le Man car, perhaps? For Force India, it is something yet unknown,... but how fast would this bad situation for Kingfisher unfolds in India? THIs isn't a good news at all...

id have to agree here too. entering the Indian aviation business is testy and that too with a partner like Tata is going to make things choppy, a race seat for Narain will be the last thing on their minds.. besides talking about entering, getting permissions and then launching are a whole lot different.

A crore is approx. 300,000 dollars I believe. So 100+ crore unpaid to the government is some serious cash and coupled with a grounded fleet, serious operating loses several times that of unremitted collected taxes, striked staff at airline.

There's no way for FI to continue. No matter how lean he runs the division. Too bad as they seemed to be the only midfield squad with a chance at cracking the top of the grid several times a season.

A crore is approx. 300,000 dollars I believe. So 100+ crore unpaid to the government is some serious cash and coupled with a grounded fleet, serious operating loses several times that of unremitted collected taxes, striked staff at airline.

There's no way for FI to continue. No matter how lean he runs the division. Too bad as they seemed to be the only midfield squad with a chance at cracking the top of the grid several times a season.

I don't know whether this article in the Telegraph means that Force India is closer to, or further from, "collapse", but the declining revenue from sponsors once controlled by Mr Mallya does illustrate a problem - and probably hints at hiring pay-drivers becoming their norm.

Digging this back up as a result of some news from the world of cricket .

Sahara have pulled their team out of the Indian 20/20 competition over a dispute with the ruling body, but it appears from the articles I've read that there may be some associated cash-flow problems as well (some players reporting that they've not received payments on time, and the ruling body claiming the franchise fees weren't paid on time - which is what precipitated the dispute).

Could be worth keeping an eye on developments, in case this is first signs of even more serious financial difficulty for Sahara and therefore potential financial problems for Force India.

Force India is very secure at the moment , 6th place in wcc is given this season and maybe 5th and more sponsors will come in result of that , in fact it is the most secure team in the midfield

Results =/= security. Especially not this early in the season. They're doing quite well on performance, sure, but they're sitting on a financial base that's not so stable. Sahara's financial situation is known to be weak (and today's news includes potential signs that it's getting weaker, if you read between the lines) while much of Mallya's business empire is also known to be on very shaky ground (or very grounded, in the case of the airline!).

Force India's future is very much subject to the future of the businesses that own the team. Mallya sold to Sahara to bring in funding that he could no longer provide. Would appear Sahara's ability to fund is reaching the bottom of the barrel as well.

They're vulnerable. Performing very well, and very solid in terms of everything that remains within the sphere of F1, but still vulnerable due to the outside influences imported by being owned by financially weak entities who could be forced to pull out at any time. Or, as Sahara has made clear with the IPL situation, pull out voluntarily at the drop of a hat because they don't like something the administration said/did (which makes the current non-Concorde situation a worry in my mind).